SEATTLE — Now that the tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct has been dug out by the world’s largest boring machine, known as Bertha, crews are working to take apart the machine and bring it, piece by piece, to the surface.
The Washington State Department of Transportation says Seattle Tunnel Partners has passed the halfway point of the process.
All of Bertha’s cutterhead is out of the disassembly pit and crews are working their way from top to bottom, cutting sections of the 8,000-ton machine and lifting them by crane.
A new time lapse video has been released showing the disassembly of the machine's trailing gear from inside the tunnel.
WSDOT said that in the video, there's more machinery behind the camera than there is in front and it may appear as if the work is almost complete, but there is more to go.
The time lapse video captures a little more than a month's work inside the tunnel to dismantle one of three backup cars that carried the tunneling support gear Bertha needed to build the new SR 99 tunnel.
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Cox Media Group
